A Promise You Can't Keep
by gpeach6
Summary: "Would you make me a promise you can't keep, just to amuse me?""Sure, anything" "Promise me that we'll always be together, and you'll never leave me." "I promise" This is the story of the night before Percy goes missing and the girl he left behind. Cover image found on google.


"So, Seaweed Brain, how was your dinner?" she asked him casually, as they exited the Pavilion hand-in-hand. He smiled, pushing her lightly with his shoulder.

"Amazing, as always, Wise-Girl," he replied. She could see his brilliant green eyes glowing in the fading light of the campfire behind them, and she lost herself in thought about their beauty.

Suddenly, without her intelligent brain's consent, her feet had stopped walking, and her hands had yanked his to pull him closer to her. For one moment that felt like hours, they stared into each other's eyes like either would disappear if they looked away.

"Percy?" she whispered, turning away and demolishing the intensity of the moment. She hated the weakness that leaked through her voice, but she reminded herself that it wouldn't matter with him. She could trust him with her life.

"Yeah?"

A pause weighed on both of them as she deliberated in her head whether or not to actually say what she had poorly planned to.

"I-uh- never mind," she told him, the concern in his voice deciding for her. She then attempted to pull him along, but he would not budge. "What?" she snapped impatiently.

"Annabeth, what's wrong?" he asked seriously, pulling her back to her previous position breath-takingly close to him.

"It's nothing, Percy. Forget it," she replied stubbornly. It was just too bad that he was almost just as stubborn.

"Hey, you know you can tell me anything, right? What is it?" he persisted, receiving a shake of the head and a weak tug on the hand. He just stared at her, and she stared back.

They could have stood out there forever, both jaws set challengingly and both sets of eyes narrowed and staring, if she had not caved first.

"Would you make me a promise you can't keep? Just for my amusement?" she asked, almost an inaudible whisper. Her question seemed to surprise him, because his eyebrows rose then dropped back down and pulled together slightly.

"Sure, anything," he answered without a second's pause.

"Promise me that we'll always stay together, and you'll never leave me," she requested, feeling stupid and childish.

"I promise," he whispered, leaning down to plant a chaste kiss on her nose. "Now, we better get back to our cabins before the harpies come after us," he suggested as he reluctantly pulled away from her. She nodded in agreement, and they spent the rest of their trip to her cabin in companionable silence. His hand felt like it weighed 100 pounds in hers. She kept asking herself why she would ask him something like that. She should have let her logical brain take over and catch the words before they fell treacherously from her tongue. At that moment, she would have paid quite a large sum of money to hear his thoughts. As they approached the glowing yellow light of the Athena cabin, their pace slowed until eventually they reached their destination.

"Goodnight," she mumbled, giving his hand a squeeze and releasing it.

"Are you okay?" he asked, worry etched into his features, which were now lit by the glow of the building next to them.

"Yes, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" she asked, hoping soon after that he hadn't picked up the defensiveness in her tone. If he noticed, he didn't say.

"You don't look fine. You look anxious about something, and I'd like to know what," he demanded, though he usually wasn't the demanding type.

"I don't know, exactly. I just have a weird feeling about tonight, like something is going to happen. Something… bad… You know what? Just forget about it, okay? It's late, and nothing has happened yet. It was probably just a bad hamburger or something," she said dismissively. He shrugged.

"Alright, well, if anything happens, kick butt for me, okay? 'Cause I'm so tired right now I think I might just sleep through it," he added to lighten the mood. She put on a smile to humor him.

"Goodnight, Seaweed Brain," she laughed, punching his shoulder jokingly.

"Goodnight, Wise-Girl," he replied, his tone growing lower and more serious as his head slowly lowered to press his lips to hers passionately. They held each other for who knows how long before one of her half-brothers yelled out the door that it was getting late and that they should get a room. That meant that their time for the day was over.

"Same time tomorrow?" he suggested, wiggling his eyebrows and winking.

"Don't hold your breath, Jackson. We've got months, ya know," she laughed, pushing him away and jogging up the steps to her cabin. She caught one last glance at her boyfriend before closing the door and heading for the bathroom to get ready for bed.

…. And the next morning she woke up, and he was gone. As far as she knows now, he is somewhere training with new people without even a thought of her, while she has been searching frantically for him since his disappearance. Why should she be any more fortunate than Piper, whose boyfriend didn't even have any recollection of her existence? _No, _she tells herself, _that was different. That was imaginary. They never really knew each other. That was just Hera messing with their heads. Percy knows me. He loves me. He won't forget me that easily. _But there is still that doubt, like a pesky, angered bird, pecking at the back of her brain.

Now, she is feeling pathetic and weak as she weeps onto a picture of them together that Chiron had taken before he'd left. His arm is around her, and they are both smiling like idiots. It makes her wish that there was some kind of magic potion to make her go back in time to when it was taken and just stay there, forever frozen in that frame, but she knows that it's senseless to wish for things that will never come. Yearning for impossible things is unhealthy, she reasons, but all of the reasoning and intelligence in the world can't bring him back to her, as hard as she tries. That is in the hands of the gods.

So, she gets down on both knees and squeezes her eyes shut, unintentionally bringing forth a cold, salty tear, and prays to every god she can think of.

"Please," she whispers, as if there is anyone around to hear. "Please, all I want is to see him again and speak to him. I just want him to be okay," she pleads, until her whole body is shaking because she's crying so hard. Then she picks herself back up, collects all of her pieces, and stands back up, wiping away the tears bravely.

Because she is brave. She is a daughter of Athena. She is a warrior. She is Anabeth Chase. She will make a plan (she just happens to be the queen of plans), and she will find Percy, whether or not he wants to be found.

With this new spark of hope leaping from her chest, she grabs her coat and exits her cabin to search for Chiron.

**A/N: Wow, Anabeth is a bit angsty in this. Oh, well, I guess you're just going to have to deal with that… sorry. It wasn't really intended. I apologize for any OOC-ness or unnecessary angst. Thanks for reading! Bye!**


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